Ukraine celebrates the Day of Slavic written language and culture today.
Also the Orthodox Church remembers brothers-devotees Cyril and Mefodiy, who presented an alphabet – Cyrillic and Glagolitic, thereby they made a basics of the Church Slavonic language, a foundation of all Slavonic literatures, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
Saint brothers Cyril and Mefodiy belonged to a noble and благочестивой family, which lived in a Greek city of Thessalonica.
Mefodiy was a warrior and he ruled one of the Slavic principalities, subordinate to Byzantine Empire, according to a legend – Bulgarian. It gave him a possibility to learn Slavic. Then he became a monk in one of the monasteries of mountain Olympus (Asia Minor), according to a hagiography.
Constantine (Cyril – as a monk) was very talented and leant all sciences of his time.
Later the Emperor sent them to Khazars for a gospel mission. On their way they stopped in Korsun, where Constantine found Gospel and Psalter, which were written by “rus letters” and a man who spoke Rus and he started learning from that man.
When the brothers came back to Constantinople, the Emperor sent them to Moravia. The Moravia Principle asked them to preach in Slavic.
For fulfilling of this mission Constantine and Mefodiy made a Slavic alphabet and they translated into Slavic liturgical books (Gospel, Apostle and Psalter). It happened in 863.
Saint Constantine died in 869; he became an ascetic and received name Cyril.
Saint Mefodiy continued preaching and spreading Slavic liturgical books.
In his last years Mefodiy translated into Slavic the whole Old Testament, the Nomocanon and the Lives of Holy Fathers.
